The present invention relates to arrangements for interconnecting printed wiring boards, and more particularly to an arrangement for interconnecting printed wiring boards by one of their edges.
Printed wiring board interconnect arrangements are well known to those skilled in the art. One type employs four vertical supports located at the corners of a vertical column. Three mother boards are mounted between different pairs of supports in such a manner as to enclose three of the four vertical sides of the column. Horizontally oriented connectors are attached to the mother boards at fixed vertical intervals. The fourth side is retained free of obstruction to permit the insertion of printed wiring boards in the connectors. Printed wiring boards mounted in this manner form a vertical stack of horizontally oriented printed wiring boards. Such an arrangement, while operating generally satisfactorily, is limited in its ability to route connections between printed wiring boards when the quantity of printed wiring boards is large since all connections between printed wiring boards must be made via the mother boards.
Another type of printed wiring board interconnect arrangement employs a plurality of printed wiring board mounting cages mounted in a frame. Each cage includes a plurality of upper and lower printed wiring board guide pairs and a corresponding plurality of connectors mounted vertically across the back of the cage. Each printed wiring board is mounted within an upper and lower guide pair and is engaged by a corresponding connector. Printed wiring boards are connected within a cage and between cages in a frame by wiring interconnecting the printed wiring board connectors. Such an arrangement, while operating generally satisfactorily, does not easily permit the use of backplanes employing printed wiring conductors to interconnect the connectors due to the lengths of conductors required.
A third type of printed wiring board interconnect arrangement includes a plurality of printed wiring boards mounted parallel to each other and grouped within files mounted in a frame. The printed wiring boards within a file are interconnected by means of a printed wiring backplane which interconnects and mounts connectors which in turn engage the printed wiring boards. Connection between printed wiring boards in different files within a frame and between frames is accomplished by means of connector terminated cables terminating on the printed wiring boards. Such an arrangement, while operating generally satisfactorily, requires the disconnection and reconnection of cables when the printed wiring boards are replaced.
The present invention overcomes these problems by providing a new and improved arrangement for interconnecting printed wiring boards.